Southern Moderate African American Issues

Second Wave of Mortgage Failures

Between the NFL game and the reality game Survivor’s Finals, I watched a segment on CBS’s 60 Minutes about the second wave of mortgage failures—my mouth down open. Drama on T.V. shows can be interesting but this mess will be all too real.

If you brought a house with an “adjustable ARM” loan and were not prepared for the agreed adjustment, you have issues. Here’s the simple “country common sense” formula: double your gross income and that number is the amount of house you can comfortably afford at this time. i.e. Income 45K…House 90K.

Those people to speculated that their house would increase in value before the ARM adjustment and the new equity could offset…bla …bla…bla…

Bottomline: you rolled the dice and crapped out. And the idiots who gave you the money are (well) idiotic—that basement where you could actually practice tennis with someone, that was the size of the house you need. Also, real estate people who push the market value of homes higher for their own personal gain should be assume and when the bubble burst, they must share the blame.